by jmcinnis | Nov 2, 2012 | D. Appropriate Humor
Two guys walk into a bar. . And find that this is not funny. Okay, should you use stock jokes, or as we comedians call them HACK jokes? I’ve talked about joke formulas like “he’s so big” or “top reasons why. . .” and I think that’s okay. You get recognition and...
by jmcinnis | Feb 5, 2011 | D. Appropriate Humor
9 People??? This week had I had the opportunity to be in front of a small group. . . 9 people. That’s NINE – single digit. . .no, I didn’t miss a zero. Before this, the smallest I’d spoken to was 12. . . a little bit of a drop from the 4400 people I was in front of...
by jmcinnis | Nov 10, 2010 | D. Appropriate Humor
All Women All Day! This week I got a chance to present my “Finding the Funny in Communications” program to a group consisting of all women! They were great! I do a lot of programs in which there are just women, or even just men, in the audience, and I usually never...
by jmcinnis | Sep 30, 2010 | A. Humor Writing, B. Research Techniques, D. Appropriate Humor, Funny Jokes, Workplace Humor
Sometimes the humor is not in researching the subject thoroughly, but rather in stepping back and looking at the big picture – their name. Companies name themselves and their products all sorts of whacky things, for all sorts of whacky reasons. Watch any commercial,...
by jmcinnis | Sep 20, 2010 | A. Humor Writing, B. Research Techniques, D. Appropriate Humor, Funny Jokes
One fun, easy way to make a mundane noun (that’s person, place or thing) funny is to give that item a human trait. For example, this week I’m doing a show for a group in Austin, TX, and one of the unique things I was told was that Austin has millions of BATS. Yes,...
by jmcinnis | Sep 11, 2010 | A. Humor Writing, D. Appropriate Humor, Funny Jokes, Workplace Humor
Jokes and joke writing are about taking things to the extreme. As I’ve said before, when you want to imply that someone is old, you don’t say 110 – because it’s plausible, you say 310 because it’s outrageous. So make sure in your joke writing that you’re taking things...
